In the realm of live poker, we all understand the significance of maintaining a poker face. Many players never enter a tournament without donning sunglasses. It's all about keeping a stoic expression, concealing any hints about the value of your hand through glances, facial expressions, and more. But what about online poker? Can you still have a poker face in the virtual world? In a way, you can, but here the focus shifts to other poker tells that don't involve facial expressions for understandable reasons. Tells exist in both live and online poker, and while there are similarities, they often differ significantly. The biggest distinction is that spotting poker tells online is more challenging.
In live poker games, common tells often revolve around unconscious body movements, ranging from the tiniest blink to more pronounced bodily gestures. Similarly, vocal tone and handling of chips can be highly revealing. Surprisingly, the most revealing tell for beginners is actually smiling or laughing when they have a strong hand or are bluffing. Disclosing this type of information is devastating for the unsuspecting player and highly lucrative for opponents who manage to uncover these poker tells. One type of tell that frequently occurs both live and online relates to the timing aspect of betting itself. Waiting longer than usual before calling or raising, as well as swiftly tossing the chips into the pot, can serve as clear indications of an unconscious tell.
However, it could just as well be a conscious action made to make opponents believe they have discovered a tell. In general, it can be said that betting either extra quickly or extra slowly never indicates a mediocre hand; the person either has a monster hand or a pure junk hand and is bluffing. Therefore, you should be cautious in these situations and carefully analyze the situation before acting. On the other hand, if it takes a long time for a player to check, they may very well have a mediocre hand. They often hold a weak but not worthless hand, such as a low pair that isn't worth calling with. Therefore, hesitation is shown to make opponents believe the hand is better than it actually is. In this way, the player hopes that the others will also check, earning a free card. Check-raise usually signifies very strong cards, but experienced and tough players use check-raise as a bluff because they know the strength it represents. Therefore, one should always take into account who they are facing before drawing any conclusions. It is difficult to maintain one's poker face, but even more difficult to reveal others' poker faces and tells.
Although you can greatly benefit from exposing your opponents, it is even more important not to reveal anything about your own gameplay! That's the foundation. First and foremost, you must try to consider how you play and the signals you send. You should strive to have a poker face. There are very few players who never give away any poker tells when they play. However, you can make sure to train away your most obvious poker tells. Once you are skilled enough to rarely let your opponents get any tells on you, only then are you ready to focus on the others at the table. All experienced players are aware that it is also necessary to manipulate. You must make the other players believe that you have something you actually don't, whether it's a better or worse hand than what you have. This, however, is advanced and manipulation often fails and is easily exposed. Therefore, you should avoid, for example, taking different amounts of time when you act in an attempt to deceive the other players, as it is easily seen through. Instead, try to take approximately the same amount of time before calling or raising. An easy, well-proven, and much sharper trick of manipulation is to change tempo occasionally. Here, tempo is not about time, but instead about which cards one plays and, above all, how they are played, the level of aggression in the betting rounds.
Discipline is a crucial aspect that directly determines long-term success. Having discipline makes it less likely for you to tilt, for example. Although it is much easier to conceal poker tells online than in live poker, there may also be situations on the internet where they are more apparent. One such example is tilt. A player who tilts online is often easier to detect and, above all, much easier to influence into continuing to play poorly. Online, there is no dealer asking you if you shouldn't take a break, and there is no one observing you when you have your outbursts of rage. Additionally, it is easier to spend more money when you only see numbers on a screen instead of physical cash or poker chips on a table. You only have yourself and your own judgment to rely on, which often leads to tilted online poker players rarely quitting early. It is usually easy to see when a player starts to tilt, and it should be exploited immediately and to the maximum! Pressure the person to call very high amounts. Likewise, be prepared to call the tilted player yourself, even if you don't have a great hand. Reasoning completely disappears for a tilted player, and before he/she realizes it and logs out, it's important to get maximum value for every hand the player is involved in.
In both live poker and online poker, players around the table can interact and exchange comments. However, the nature of these comments varies significantly, most likely due to the anonymity factor. Since no one or very few people know who you are, it often leads to unruly behavior in the chat. The discourse between players on the internet is much harsher compared to real-life situations. This kind of conduct may seem reprehensible in many ways, but as long as you stay within the boundaries of the law and refrain from sinking to a low level with your verbal attacks, it can actually be recommended to provoke other players, as long as it doesn't distract you from your own game. If, on the other hand, you are the type of person who gets provoked and changes your playing style as a result of what is being said in the comment field, it's best to completely disable the chat function. In live poker, it's harder to shut out and shield yourself from opponents' comments. In online poker, that feature is just a button press away. It's an opportunity that too few players actually take advantage of. Focus on your poker face and don't let yourself be distracted by others.
Undoubtedly, the greatest advantage you have when it comes to uncovering online tells is the feature that allows you to make notes on other players. Almost all poker rooms offer you the opportunity to write annotations directly on each player. In this way, you avoid keeping track of the players and the poker tells you have on them manually through a notepad or solely relying on your memory, as you are forced to do with players you meet live. Often, you encounter the same players online, particularly if you play at the highest levels. Then, it is valuable knowledge to have carefully studied them and be familiar with their playing styles, strengths, weaknesses, and tells. When you have played hundreds and even thousands of hands with the same player, you often learn to understand their strategy. However, if you stick to the lower levels, you encounter considerably more opponents! In these cases where you play against the same player less frequently, it is impossible to remember your observations. That's when you can simply double-click on the respective player and retrieve your previous notes about them or write new ones. This can be information that is worth its weight in gold in crucial and challenging situations.
Lastly, do not overlook the fact that poker tells hold different meanings for different players. Familiarize yourself with how your opponents react in various situations and practice maintaining your poker face, both in live and online poker. Remember to not neglect the significance of poker tells, as they can be a valuable tool in your gameplay strategy.